I Wish, I Want, I Need
by iliketurtlesfoo
Summary: Warp Kyler, a fifteen year old Greaser living on the East side of town--where else would he be? And his struggles with domestic violence, loneliness, death, friendship, and overall misery.
1. The Birth of the Damned

"Yo, greassssaaaaa!" Some Soc yelled out of his car window as he drove past about twenty miles over the speed limit. I stopped and looked at that car speeding past, a Mercedes, and I just sat down and cried on the curb.

My name's Warp, I live on the East side of town, and I really wish life would give me a break once in a while.

July 17th, 1993, 1:00 a.m. north eastern time: Katherine, pregnant with her second son and in her third trimester, woke up in the early morning hours to find her sheets wet. At first, she assumed she had wet the bed—her bladder was weaker, especially after having a son and another was on the way—but she soon felt a stabbing pain in her stomach and realized her water had broken and she had started labor. She roused her husband who was fast asleep.

"Max, Max! We need to get to the hospital," she told him, as soon as his sleepy eyes opened. He was soon fully awake and helping Katherine to the car. There was no need to pack up this suit cases, Max had already thought ahead. Canine, their first son who was five years old, ran up to his mother. How he had gotten out of crib, Katherine didn't know, but she knew that Canine was upset, since his tears were shining in the yellow street light.

"Mommy, where are you going? Stay here with me!" Canine screamed, frightened to let his mother go. He grabbed onto her wrist. Katherine put her hand on his head and patted his black hair lovingly.

"I'll be back, sweetie," she soothed him. As another stab went through her stomach, she gritted her teeth and bent down to kiss her son. "And you'll have a new baby brother too," she said between gasps of breath as the pain increased. She started to have a sinking feeling. This was not like her first pregnancy at all, why was it so painful already? She calmed herself down. Doctor Sarabeth (that was what the Kyler family called her, since she was also a close family friend) had told Katherine that every pregnancy is different, even with the same woman. Her husband helped her into the back seat (since the passenger seat is always called, 'the seat of death' by most people) and she lied down, breathing rhythmically. Max was telling the babysitter about Canine's favorite breakfast bowl and cereal and the homework he had to complete. The babysitter nodded, and Max flung himself into the driver's seat. Canine watched the car drive away with sad eyes. The babysitter took his hand and led him into to house.

"You want some ice cream?" she asked, but her words just sounded like empty blobs in his ears. He just nodded and let tears roll down his face.

Katherine moaned in the back seat. By now, she knew something was horribly wrong with this pregnancy, she was just too afraid to tell Max. She bit down on her lip as another stabbing pain ripped through her.

"You okay back there, honey?" He said a little louder than he meant too. Katherine just responded with a moan. Max dodged other cars quickly; he didn't want his second son to be born in a back seat.

The lights of the hospital blinded Max's eyes. He felt Katherine's dead weight on him.

"You're doing fine, baby," he said, as he went up to the desk. A nurse quickly ran over with a wheelchair and motioned Katherine to sit. The nurse quickly wheeled her away since Katherine was struggling to keep quiet. The pain was growing more intense by the minute, and Katherine just wanted to scream even though she knew that screaming would do no good. She couldn't imagine living through this kind of pain. The nurse helped her off the wheelchair and into a bed. Katherine by now was screaming in pain.

"Make it stop," she cried to the nurse, who was trying to calm Katherine down, "Please, do something. _I'm dying_," she moaned again and the nurse started hooking her up to machines. Then, something red caught the nurse's eye. There was a puddle of blood where Katherine was just sitting, and bright red liquid started to leak through the white sheets of the hospital bed. The nurse was by now paging the first OB/GYN she could think of. The nurse started pushing the hair away from Katherine's face, shushing her and telling her it was going to be okay. Katherine was crying and shaking her head, telling the nurse she needed Sarabeth.

"Please, get me Sarabeth," she cried, "Get me Max. I want to tell him I love him." Another knife of pain sliced through her body and she screamed, regardless of the nurse's efforts to calm her.

"So, do any of you know what the difference is between a vampire and Dr. Jenkins?" Dr. Shwartz set up a joke about the nastiest and bitchiest doctor in the whole hospital. Everyone was enjoying coffee at the cafeteria, and everyone was smiling as they shook their heads and awaited the punch line. Dr. Shwartz took a sip of coffee and enlightened them, "One will suck your blood, and the other is a vampire!" Everyone laughed even though it was incredibly corny and really not funny at all. Dr. Shwartz's pager beeped and everyone groaned. Shwartz rolled her eyes as she saw it was an emergency.

"Guys, I gotta take this. Another mother-to-be is freaking out again," she put her pager in her pocket and poured her coffee down the drain. She crushed her cup and put it in the garbage. The room that the pager had informed her of was on the third floor, room 358.

As soon as she entered room 358, Dr. Shwartz was confronted with a screaming pregnant woman and five nurses trying to calm her down.

"_He's dying, I'm dying!_" She kept on screaming over and over. Dr. Shwartz rushed over to the bed. Her first intentions were to try to calm the mother. She had seen cases in which the pain was so intense that the woman truly believed she was dying, but really everything was going smoothly and beautifully. And then she saw the blood. She put her hand over her mouth and quickly started giving orders.

"Get me an oxygen mask, a scalpel, and some alcohol," she screamed, the nurses quickly scattered to get what Dr. Shwartz asked for. As soon as she was handed everything, Dr. Shwartz worked fast. She slapped the mask over Katherine's face. Katherine screamed again in pain as hot searing agony cut through her body.

"Where's Max?!" She screamed, her eyes, red from tears and crying, looked around the room but she only found white walls and a face with a green surgeon's mask over half of it. Katherine screamed again in terror and confusion. Dr. Shwartz splashed the alcohol on Katherine's distended stomach to prevent infection and cut her way into Katherine's body. Cold, sharp pain exploded through Katherine as soon as the scalpel cut her. Dr. Shwartz quickly delivered the baby and tried to get it to breathe. By then, five other doctors had entered the room to help. Dr. Shwartz handed the newborn over to another OB/GYN because she had now just realized Katherine was bleeding to death. Despite all their efforts, Katherine was fading fast. When Dr. Shwartz cut Katherine, she had shifted in pain and it had caused the incision to cut wider and larger than Dr. Shwartz intended, thus, it was hard to stop the bleeding.

Katherine Kyler died at 4:68 a.m. about ten minutes after her baby Warp was born.

Max was pacing in the waiting room of the Labor and Birth unit. He had seen so many doctors rushing in and out of rooms, he tried to tell himself Katherine was alright, but he had a sinking feeling that she wasn't. A doctor with short blonde hair and icy blue eyes came out of the room Katherine had been admitted into. He longed for those words he had heard when Canine had been born, "_Mr. Kyler, you are now the proud father to a healthy baby boy…_". To his horror, he found himself mouthing those words as he saw Dr. Shwartz walk up to him. Dr. Shwartz extended her hand and he shook it robotically.

"I'm Dr. Shwartz. I know I'm not your wife's OB/GYN, but I delivered your baby boy, and he's fine. Your wife Katherine passed away—," Max only heard those words before his ears fell silent to anything else. He saw Dr. Shwartz's mouth moving but he heard no words come out. Max found himself nodding as he felt tears spill from his eyes uncontrollably. His hearing seemed to come back because he suddenly heard himself scream.


	2. Pulling Teeth, Breaking Bones

March 1st 1998: Warp Kyler opened his door just the slightest of centimeters. Peeking out at the slightly lit hallway, Warp could see the coast was clear. He breathed a sigh of relief. Canine was always looking to torture him, and the one room he couldn't get Warp in was Warp's room. So Warp stayed in his room most of the time, listening to music and watching T.V. But there always comes a time in the day, (normally this time happens three times, breakfast, lunch, and dinner) where he must leave the sanctuary of his room and face what was outside: His brother Canine. Warp opened his door all the way and let the door swing to the inside of his room.

"Just get some food, maybe a drink if I have time, and run back. Do it fast," Warp whispered to himself. He took a step into the dimly lit hallway and left his oasis behind, the place that shielding him from all of his brother's wrath. The floor creaked as he walked through the hallway. The kitchen was just a few feet away, and Warp found himself getting prouder of as he neared the kitchen. He walked inside the kitchen and found himself face to face with his brother. His brother didn't look anything like the rest of the family. He had death black hair and cruel glacier green eyes, he was somehow built bulkier than the rest of the family, and he was more muscular and therefore could easily overpower five year old skinny Warp. Warp felt his heart beat fast; he could hear it in his ears Saliva began building up in his mouth and he felt the need to get sick. His stomach churned. Feeling like a rabbit caught in the gaze of a predator, Warp stood still. He hoped it looked like he was standing his ground in bravery, and not in pure terror. Canine scowled at Warp as he closed the fridge. Canine's face turned from disappointed, to angry. He started yelling.

"Get out of our house!" He screamed, getting closer to Warp. Warp shrunk back in fear, he put his hands feebly of his face in a helpless attempt to protect himself. Canine was lunging over him, "You _killed _her you _killed_ my mother! Get out of my fucking house now! You worthless little shit!" Canine was breathing hard. His hand reached out and grabbed Warp by the wrist, shaking him.

"She was my mother too!" He yelled, crying and trying to yank his wrist back. Canine flung Warp's wrist back to him. The skin was red where Canine had grabbed him, and it hurt a lot. Warp cradled it to his small chest; he felt hot tears running down his face. "I didn't mean to," Warp sobbed, his voice wobbly, "it wasn't my fault…" Canine grabbed Warp by the shirt collar and hoisted him up.

"Stop crying," he sneered. Warp sniffed and tried to stop. "I'd call the police and tell them I had an intruder and murderer in my house if it weren't for all the paperwork filed on you. And the fact you're only five years old," Warp sobbed even more now.

"Can I at least get something to eat?" Warp choked out, trying not to cry. Canine threw him a packet of gum. Walking away, Canine made sure he didn't leave without the deadly reminder he carried around. Canine whipped out his pocket knife and made stabbing motions.

"And don't forget I have this with me," he warned, smiling. Warp just nodded, taking the packet of gum and scurrying off to his room where no one could hurt him.

At 8:00 p.m. Max came home. Canine ran up to him and received a hug from him, while Warp watched through his slightly cracked open door. Max came walking over to Warp's room and Warp positioned himself on his bed, watching T.V.

"Hey, champ," Max said, as Warp smiled. He pulled his shirt sleeve down subtly to cover up the bruise. Max came over and kissed Warp on the head, Warp returned the greeting with a kiss on the cheek for Max. Max looked at Warp's eyes for a minute. Normally, they were big, lucid and dark brown. He had his mother's eyes. But today they were puffy and red.

"Have you been crying?" Max asked, seeming worried. Warp nodded his head. With a cock of his head, Max asked, "Why? Is something upsetting you?"

"I miss you during the day. Please stay home," Warp begged him, almost bursting into tears again. Max sighed.

"You're giving me those Bambi eyes," he almost said it to himself. Warp wasn't even aware he was doing that. He nodded anyway. "I can't, dude, I've got to keep working to keep food here for you guys. And I want to save up money for college for you and Canine," Warp's stomach flipped at the mention of his brother's name. Swallowing the bile that had risen in his throat, he just nodded, pretending to understand, _It's not like I'm allowed to eat that food anyway, _Warp thought bitterly. His fingers brushed his pocket where he kept the gum Canine gave him. Max smiled and walked out of Warp's room.

The room felt cold and empty without Max in there with him. Reaching into his pocket, Warp grabbed the gum Canine had given him. Warp popped some in his mouth and started to chew, feeling sad and lonely and hungry. In his chest, he felt disappointment and disgrace. Warp had always told himself that it wasn't his fault that his mother had died. Even his father—who was still a little bitter and recovering from his wife's death—always told Warp that it wasn't his fault and that he loved his son very much. But Canine made it constantly clear that he blamed Warp for their mother's death. And he never said, "our mother" he always said, "my mother" as if Katherine wasn't Warp's mother as well. It tore at Warp's young heart, and it spoiled his innocence.

Warp continued to cradle his wrist to his chest, trying to somehow mend the bones he was sure Canine had broken. He pulled his hand away and grimaced, his whole wrist was bruised and swollen and he could swear that some of the bones were sticking up. How was he going to explain this? Canine made it clear that if Warp told on him, Canine was going to beat the crap out of him. But Warp knew he needed his father's care and possibly a trip to the hospital. Warp screamed as if he had suddenly experienced a sharp pain. An idea to cover yet another blow from Canine and still get help was forming. Max rushed into the room.

"What, what is it?" Max yelled. The floor creaked as Max ran toward Warp, sitting down beside him and searching him for anything wrong with his son. He found the answer as soon as he looked at what Warp was coddling to his chest. Max sighed sympathetically. "Oh, honey…" he murmured softly as he tried to move Warp's undamaged hand which was covering his hurt one. Warp whimpered and shifted away. For some reason, his hand was hurting even more now. "How did you do that?" Max spoke softly, trying to get Warp's hand away from his chest so he could look at it. Continuing to shy away, Warp was crying now.

"I don't know," he whispered, "I—I," he looked at his half open window. He kept it that way so he could get enough air in his room, but also to not let too much heat out. Seeing it gave him an excuse of how he broke his hand, "closed my hand in the window." Warp said it almost guiltily. Max clicked his tongue sympathetically. Quickly, Max scooped his son up and walked out the door.

"Canine, get the keys and open the door to the car, okay? Your little brother has to go to the hospital," Max ordered with a firm tone in his voice. Warp, from his position in his father's arms, could see Canine's eyes flash with jealousy—so fast he almost missed it—but Canine quickly replaced that jealousy with care for his injured brother. Warp became sick to his stomach. How could he? How could he pretend like that? He turned his head into his father's chest, closing his eyes. Warp felt himself being laid down in the back seat. Canine was sitting up in the front. Warp quickly fell asleep on the drive to the hospital.

The hospital brought back horrible memories for Max. He couldn't stand to delve deep into his traumatizing recollections. Max decided to look at the little boy in his arms again. He smiled. Even though he had lost his wife, he had gained something amazing, too. Max loved his son like he had loved Katherine. Warp showed every aspect of Katherine. Right down to her intellectuality to the striving force to survive and the life in her eyes. It was all incorporated into Warp, and whenever Max looked at him, he was glad that at least Warp had survived. And when Warp was hurting, Max felt it as if it were his own. He would do anything for Warp. Sure, he loved Canine as well, he loved him with all his heart, but Warp had that special bond with him. Max walked up to the receptionist and asked, "Where can I admit my son in the hospital?" The receptionist tilted her glasses down her nose. She looked at the sobbing child in Max's arms and made a sympathetic noise.

"Jumping on the bed?" She guessed, as her dainty fingers tapped at the keyboard, admitting Warp and paging a doctor to help. Max gave her a nervous smile. She looked young and very pretty. Her chestnut brown hair made her look like Katherine, since she was bending down, and Max quickly became immersed with the crown of her head, almost wanting to reach out and touch her. Then, she looked up and her blue eyes shattered Max's day dream.

"Just wait over there, okay?" Her voice was soft. Max, almost feeling like he had felt the day Katherine died, just nodded. He took Warp to the seats where the receptionist had pointed towards. There were a total of five people there. Two of them a couple, who were obviously coming in because the woman was pregnant, then another couple with a small child who didn't quite look sick, but something else was going on with her. Max looked at the woman's swollen belly. How her hands caressed the life inside her, how they protected the precious cargo. The man's hands came down over her stomach as well, caressing the unborn child. Max swallowed the lump in his throat. Emotion was welling up inside him, and he thought he was going to start crying right then. He remembered how Katherine was so excited with having another child. Her happy voice echoed in his ears: "_Oh, Max, we're going to have another baby. We're going to have a baby…and we're going to have a big family. A big family, that's what I always have wanted. A big happy family…_"Max shook his head. Then, his son started to shift in his arms, and he looked down to see those beautiful lucid dark brown fathomless eyes staring up at him. They said, '_Help me, Daddy_,' and Max smiled, the emotion turned from sadness, to being overjoyed that he had such a beautiful and meaningful child in his arms. Katherine may have died, but she left Max an amazing part of her. He tucked Warp closer to his chest and whispered to him.

"It's going to be okay," he murmured, "It's going to be fine. They'll fix up your hand and you'll be better and we can go home." Warp weakly smiled and looked around. He couldn't see Canine. He thought, _Now's my chance. Tell him about Canine._

"Daddy," Warp whispered, his voice raspy, Max nodded for him to go on. Warp swallowed, "Canine's really mean to me." Max made a noise in the back of his throat the sounded like a low sob of heartbreak and sympathy.

"Did he hurt you in any way?" Max murmured low, so he wouldn't disturb anyone else. Warp just shrugged weakly. "I don't know what that means, Warp. I asked you if he hurt you." Max was becoming firmer now, but he still spoke in a low voice. Warp's eyes traveled along the walls of the patient room. They came back up to Max's eyes. Warp sighed.

"No, he just yells at me," Warp sounded like he was confessing the whole truth, "A lot." Max nodded.

"Okay, I'll tell him to quit it, okay?" Warp smiled feebly. Canine was soon walking up to Max, as if on queue. Canine looked over Max's arms and at Warp, who hid his face in Max's chest again.

"Is he okay?" Canine asked, seeming to be worried. Really, though, Canine felt triumphant. Triumphant at the fact that he was strong enough to break his little brother's bones, to make him as weak and lifeless as he was right now. Of course, Canine didn't let this show. Max smiled at Canine.

"Have a seat, Canine," Max sighed, "We might be here a while." Canine obeyed and started swinging his feet to pass the time.

After hours of waiting, and hours of Max struggling not to sleep, the doctor finally called the last name Kyler. Max looked up tiredly and blinked twice.

"Us?" He asked, almost unbelievingly. The doctor cocked her eyebrow and beckoned at Max.

"You're the only ones here," the doctor chuckled. Max felt his nervous smile acting up again. Then he felt the blood rush to his face. The doctor stuck out her hand so Max could shake it, and then she took back her hand, since Max's were full with his son.

"This way," the doctor motioned down the hall. They were motioned into a room and forced to wait another five minutes before the doctor came into the room again with a clipboard.

"My name is Doctor Crenshaw," she said, "So, what's up?"

"My son broke his hand," Max said, shaking his son in his arms gently to wake him.

"Wha—," Warp mumbled. Max chuckled, his smile making the sides of his eyes crinkle up.

"We've finally gotten to a doctor. She's going to make your hand better, okay?" Warp's sleepy eyes slowly widened in fear. His curly tresses of hair fell into his eyes, making him look even smaller and more scared.

"Aw, he's so cute," Dr. Crenshaw whispered to Max. Max smiled at her and smiled even wider at his son.

"I know," he murmured, setting him up on the chair instead of lying in his arms. Warp quietly started to cry as he coddled his hand against his chest. Dr. Crenshaw, who was in a rolling chair, rolled over to him. She was at his face level since she was sitting down.

"My first name is Amy," Dr. Crenshaw said, "You can call me Amy, if that makes you feel better," Amy gave Warp a big smile and Warp, for some reason, found himself smiling as well. Amy chuckled and Warp felt himself relax a little. She just had that charm. That charm that made her a perfect children's doctor. Amy excused herself for a moment and came back without her clipboard.

"I had to go turn on all the lights and everything on in the x-ray room because no one is here. There's only like, two doctors on call," Amy sighed. Max nodded, understanding. Amy looked down at Warp and she kneeled by him.

"Do you want to walk with me to the x-ray room?" She asked sweetly. Warp's deep brown eyes widened in fear as he shook his head fast, his thin brown eyebrows knitting together in fear. Amy clicked her tongue sympathetically.

"Do you know what an x-ray is?" She asked. Max moved toward his son a little. He seemed to be paling by the second. Warp just shook his head again.

"It's like a camera. It takes pictures of you," she explained, "except it's not like a normal camera, it can take pictures of your bones. That way, I can see what part of the hand is broken so I can fix it." Warp seemed to be thinking about this, as if he had an option in it. Deep brown eyes looked at the floor hard in thought. After a few moments, Warp looked up.

"I'm not very photogenic," he replied, swinging his feet. Amy smiled and laughed. Max was chuckling and Warp was looking around, "What?"

"Oh, Warp, you kill me, you really do," Max chuckled, "she's just going to take a picture of your hand, dude." Warp made an, "oooohhhhhhh" face and jumped off of the bed he had been positioned on. Brown eyes wondered all over the place as Warp took in his surroundings. No Canine, he noticed. Breathing a sigh of relief, Warp smiled. He followed Amy to the x-ray room, where she made him stay still. She left for a minute but came back when she was done taking the picture. She led him back to his father who was still in the room. She had brought the x-ray with her She slid it onto a contraption on the wall, and when she flipped a switch on the side, the picture lit up. Warp's eyes shone.

"That's so cool!" He exclaimed, his face glowing despite the pale tone it had taken since the pain in his hand had increased a little. Amy smiled. Max chuckled.

"It is, isn't it?" She mused, looking at Warp with admiring eyes, "Modern technology is amazing." Warp was nodding briskly. He was smiling.

"I agree," he said. The formal tone in his voice contradicted the little boy's soft and sweet voice, "what we can do with almost nothing is amazing." Amy's eyebrows rose, while Max didn't seem surprised at all.

"He's wise beyond his years," he explained. Amy smiled at Max. She could see the pride shining in Max's eyes. With a son like Warp, Amy couldn't blame him. Amy inspected the picture of Warp's hand while Warp and his father awaited the conclusion of this erratic evening. Amy seemed to come to a conclusion.

"He didn't break his hand," she explained, still studying the picture, "he broke his wrist."

"You can fix it, right?" Max asked, a worried tone in his voice. Amy smiled.

"Of course." She walked out of the room for a while, then. Max looked at Warp, wanting an explanation.

"So, you broke it with the window, eh?" Warp just nodded, his face turning serious. Max sighed, "Jeez, Warp, you've been getting hurt a lot lately." Warp just shrugged. He looked in his father's eyes until he couldn't anymore and had to look away. Max's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Before Max could drill Warp any more with questions, Amy came back in the room with a syringe and tools to apply a splint. Amy was impressed about how Warp was handling the situation now. Before, he was scared and pale, but after seeing more of his surroundings and just talking, he was almost right at home. That's what Amy liked about it being late in the night and almost no people waiting for her to take care of their problems, she liked that she could take time to get to know the patient, which she doesn't get to do during the busy day. She injected a numbing solution into Warp's wrist. He hardly flinched.

"Strange," Amy thought out loud to Warp and Max, "Five year olds normally scream and cry and kick when I give them shots." Warp just shrugged.

"Why would I want to do that?" He asked, completely wanting to know. Amy just smiled at him as she threw away the syringe. "I'd just look stupid." Amy admired this small child, who she now was coming to believe was smarter than most adults. Amy applied the splint to Warp's broken wrist and gave Max pain killers for Warp to take. She suggested that Warp keep his hand elevated as much as possible. Then Amy smiled at them and showed them out the room. They eventually met up with Canine again who was waiting in the patient room. He looked at Max hopefully.

"Can we go now?" He asked, seeming extremely impatient and annoyed. Max smiled and nodded. Now that he realized how tired he was, he was not looking forward to the long drive home. He put Warp in the back seat and kept Canine up front. The long drive home filled the car with a sort of loud silence that no one could stand, but no one said a thing.


	3. There's Another One

September 19, 2000: Warp was now seven years old, and he has been becoming more courageous around his brother. His motive? Food, water, and his father. When Warp had been born, he had his mother for a total of five minutes. Then _they _(the angels in heaven that had coveted the love that Katherine had had for her baby boy) had whisked her away for a reason Warp, Max, or even Canine couldn't fathom, and Warp completely belonged to his father. Warp had always called himself a 'daddy's boy' since that was what he was. Whenever he had seen little boys with their mothers, he would wish that his mother had survived. For a total of five seconds he wished this with an intense ferocity...before he remembered that his father had the love of a father and a mother and maybe even the love of a brother that Canine completely failed at. And Warp had always smiled and walked on, with such a confidence that made him look regal to passerbyes. [Coined word; meaning the plural of a passerby].

Warp had realized by age six that he had to get out of the house once in a while. No matter how dangerous it was outside, it was always more dangerous inside. What, with Canine patrolling through the house…the incident of the broken hand when he was five would certainly happen again. It would happen in bigger ways. Maybe Canine would break his nose next, and then his ribs, and then maybe something bigger. Maybe even stab him with that pocket knife he had somehow acquired. Warp shivered. To know that he could be killed at any moment, even in his own home, was unnerving. Unnerving was of course an understatement, but Warp didn't exactly have the most extensive vocabulary. He was only eight, and he didn't go to school.

Warp lived on the East Side of town. Translation: The Shithole. Population: Decreasing by the second. And then there was the West side. Translation: The Works. Population: Rising and partying. Warp had some ferocious feelings towards the West Side. They came barging into the Greaser's territory and abused them. And they do it for fun. Warp always had to watch his back lest he get jumped. Every day now, Warp walked out the door at 6:00 a.m., stopped at Aaron's house, ate there, walked around with Aaron, came home, ate dinner with Max, and he was back outside again and he normally met up with Aaron at the park.

Right now, Warp was walking with Aaron. Aaron was a small eight year old. He wasn't short, in fact he was almost as tall as Warp, but Aaron was small in his features. Small bones. Even Warp looked big next to him. Aaron wasn't emaciated-looking or anything, he just looked really small. He was good looking, even for an eight year old. With the same death black hair as Canine, Warp was a little wary at first, but Aaron had something that made Warp look at Aaron and say, "that's not Canine," even with that hair. It was Aaron's citrine eyes. He had honey yellow eyes that sparked when he had a sudden changed of emotion, and they were stunning as well. They were nothing like the icy green that Canine's eyes had. They had met when someone was giving Warp shit about how he didn't have grease in his hair. (For the record, Aaron didn't have grease in his hair either, and he never planned on putting it in his hair.)

The day Warp and Aaron met was cloudy: _They were all hanging out before school hours (of course this was when Warp still went to school) on the sidewalk in front of the school. Another Greaser approached Warp—who was standing alone, which made him an easy target—and pushed him on the chest. Warp stumbled back a few inches but didn't fall. The other Greaser was Michael Jones, a well known one at that. He was eight years old while Warp was still six at this time; so Michael was also bigger and stronger._

_ "What the hell?" Warp asked in a loud tone, putting his arms out._

_ "You call your scrawny self a Greaser?" Michael Jones asked rhetorically. He was breathing hard and he was in Warp's face. Warp wondered how someone could get so mad about something that wasn't his business. "You don't have no grease in ya hair," he observed, taking a bit of Warp's longish hair in his fingers. Warp took a step away, not knowing what to say. He normally never knew what to say. Sometimes he would get a comeback that was really good but after that he had nothing. Today was not one of those days. Michael advanced on him. From the corner of Warp's eye, he saw a crowd forming. They were forming a ring around Michael and Warp._

Oh, shit, _Warp thought_, he's gonna beat me up._ The whole crowd was murmuring something. Some of them were looking on hungrily, as if they were wolves. Some were looking on with an indifference that angered Warp. Then, with horror, Warp heard what they were saying. In low, chanting voices, everyone was murmuring _fight, fight, fight. _Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Warp could see someone advancing up to Michael from behind. The person gave a huge jump and reached for Michael's greased up hair. The attacker's tiny hands grasped the hair and he held on despite all the grease, finding that he could hold on. Michael yelled and reached for his back, wondering what just happened. _

_ "What the fuck!!" He was screaming, "What the fuck is on my back!" Everyone was screaming and yelling and laughing. Warp was too shocked to do anything but stare. Everyone was yelling at him as well. They were giving him suggestions, but one that really stood out to him was one girl's suggestion: "Kick 'im in the balls, kid!" she was screaming over and over. Warp looked back at Michael, who had now shaken the kid off of his back. Before Michael could make another move Warp kneed him in the balls and Michael let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground. As soon as Michael fell, Warp could see who had been Michael's attacker. At first glance, Warp thought, _Holy crap it's Canine_. But then he saw the citrine eyes flash and he relaxed. It was just some other kid who looked about the same age as Warp only smaller. But Warp could also see something else about the kid. He was wearing a mask over his face, so just around his eyes showed and everything below his nose. Everyone was just staring until the boy broke and ran for it. Warp, who barely could think straight anymore, ran after him, leaving the other kids staring. _

_ Warp eventually chased the boy into an alley Warp knew very well. It was dark and damp but no one really knew about it. Well, now the boy apparently knew about it as well, but this was important for Warp. He wanted to know who would even give a hang about him. The boy saw the wall at the end of the alley and skidded to a halt. He turned around. The mask on his face was turned town at the sides, unlike most others, and it was black as his hair. The boy suddenly gave a start as he saw Warp, red faced and breathless, he stared back at him. _

_ "I am the voice of he voiceless," the boy began haughtily; "I am the keeper of this wretched city. I am the protector where there is no other brave enough. I am the wings of the wingless. I am the—" Warp by now was chuckling._

_ "Dude, what the hell are you saying?" Warp said, laughing. The boy by now was getting angrier. _

_ "Hey, dude, I just saved your life!" The boy exclaimed, while Warp was just continuing laughing, "I'd think you'd be a little more consid—," by then the boy couldn't contain his laughter anymore either. The boy hit his back against the wall and slid down slowly, laughing as well. Warp stopped chuckling for a moment._

_ "Dude, why are you laughing?" The boy looked up at Warp with a huge smile on his face._

_ "Because I just realized how stupid this is," the boy was laughing really hard now. He put his hand up to his mask and snapped it off, "I mean, you cannot even make this stuff up." Warp laughed harder as well. As soon as they were both done laughing at the boy's stupidity, they began talking._

_ "What's your name?" The boy asked, making an acknowledgment to Warp with his chin. _

_ "Warp," he replied. He expected the normal, "Okay, stop shitting me kid, I know that's not your real name," or, "Yeah, and my name's Mushroom." But Aaron just nodded._

_ "Good name," he replied, looking down. "I'm Aaron." _

_ "That's a girl's name," Warp replied, smiling a little. Aaron's eyes flashed._

_ "It's spelled with two a's and an o dumbass," he replied icily. Warp put his hands up. _

_ "Okay, okay," he said, "that's legit." Aaron nodded and smiled. Aaron put his hand out. His upper arm set vertical and bent at the elbow. Warp took it and pulled at the same time Aaron did, engaging in a handshake that was universal to all Greasers. But without knowing it, they both started to go more into it, they started to pull back and they moved their hands so that when they let go they made a snapping noise. They both looked at each other and finished it with a pound and then splaying their fingers at the end. _

_ "Dude, you know that handshake?" They both said at the same time. Aaron's mouth was hanging open. Warp's eyes were wide._

_ "How do you know that handshake?" Aaron asked, completely intrigued. _

_ "I learned it from Max," he explained. He didn't want to say, 'Max, my father,' because that just didn't sound alright. _

_ "How do you know it?" Warp asked. Aaron just shrugged._

_ "I've been walking around these streets my whole life. I just know it," Aaron replied. "I mean, I don't go to school." Warp did a double take. This kid didn't go to school? Lucky son of a bitch._

_ "You don't go to school?" Warp asked rhetorically, "Lucky." Aaron just shrugged._

_ "I taught myself how to read enough so I don't feel stupid with the rest of you all," he said, now looking down, "You don't know how good you have it, just to go to school, to be able to know." Aaron was now getting too much into his deeper thoughts, and he stopped himself. But the little that he had said made Warp think. But he still always came to the same conclusion: I can always school myself._

_ "You know, I can always school myself. If I could hang out with you this one day just to see what you're life is like, then I would do it." Aaron looked at Warp and a slow smiled started to light up his face. _

_ "Let's go for it, bro," he said, and they both stood up, ready to explore the world, one with new eyes, and one with a new brother. _

Looking back on that day, Warp could see how far they've come. Now they had a daily schedule. They both knew everything about each other, from how Warp's mother died, to how Aaron's father had killed his brother. And needless to say, Aaron was a little bit happier that he didn't have a brother after hearing about Warp's brother and how he took every chance he got to hurt Warp. Once, when Warp had wanted to get a CD from his room to show Aaron, Canine had caught him and broken his foot. Aaron had been waiting outside when he saw Warp walking out hopping on one foot. Warp hopped down the stairs. He wasn't crying, he barely looked like he was in pain, but Aaron knew Warp well even then, and he knew Warp was trying very hard not to let out as scream of pain.

"So," Warp said, a little breathless, "Here's Slipknot's album I just got yesterday." Aaron had laughed, told Warp to sit down and that he was a fucking retard. Aaron was able to feel the bones in Warp's foot, correct them, and wrap it up in his light jacket and tie it tightly.

It was 4:00 p.m. and Aaron was telling Warp a story about how his father was a complete douche bag. One of his many stories of this topic.

"So I'm going out the door and all the sudden he actually decides to speak to me. Of course in order to do that, he has to take the God damn cigarette out of his mouth. He said, 'Where you goin' boy? School?' And I'm just thinking, 'how stupid do you have to be to even make that comment?' Can you fucking believe that guy?" Warp nodded.

"Your dad sucks, dude. I'm glad my dad's actually pretty amazing." Warp replied. He was used to listening to Aaron ramble on about his dad and how suckish he was. Normally, he only had one story a week, so it didn't annoy Warp that much. Today was a Friday, so it had taken Aaron all week to take one of the instances his father was a retard and tell Warp about it.

"When you and I turn eighteen," Warp said, "We're gonna get out of this town. We're gonna save up money in a jar so we can take a plane to…"

"Hawaii," Aaron suggested, smiling. Warp smiled back at him.

"Tokyo, Berlin, Italy, we can go anywhere we want," he sighed. Aaron looked at Warp then.

"Dude, we need money," he replied, looking at Warp. Warp nodded and looked down. He kicked a rock and it fell into the sewer. Aaron listened for the sound the rock would make when it fell. It didn't make a sound. Perplexed, Aaron stopped by the sewer that Warp had kicked the rock into and knelt down beside it. Warp kept on walking.

"What the hell are you doing, Aaron?" Warp asked in a condescending tone, still walking. Aaron looked up at Warp's still-walking figure. Aaron blew hair out of his face and put his ear down to the sewer, not answering Warp. He still hadn't heard the rock crash to the bottom. Warp finally stopped walking and turned around.

"Dude, get up off the ground. I really don't understand—" Aaron looked at Warp and his eyes flashed in anger as he put a finger to his lips. Then he went back to listening for the rock. Warp was at first stunned, but now he just rolled his eyes and sat on the curb next to Aaron, trying to figure out what the hell he was up to. After a while, Warp tiredly put his chin on his hand, waiting. Aaron shifted and looked up at Warp. Warp looked back at him, his eyes saying, 'Well?'

"Do you hear it?" Aaron whispered. Warp listened really hard, his face looking skeptical.

"I don't hear shit," he replied, looking at Aaron angrily. Despite the angry glare and tone Warp had taken with him, Aaron smiled and nodded.

"Precisely," he said, smiling. Warp just looked at him as if he were insane. Aaron sat up. "You kicked a rock into that sewer, and no sound came."

"The sewer is probably filled with water and that's why you didn't hear anything," Warp explained. Aaron shook his head.

"That can't be true because then we would have heard something." Rolling his eyes, Warp stood up.

"Why is this so important t you?" Warp asked, crossing his arms. Aaron got a dangerous cocky smile on his face, signaling that Warp was about to get pwned once again. Warp braced himself.

"Do you have anything else better to do today?" Aaron asked. Warp stood in silence for a while. Then—he guessed today was one of _those _days—he got a really good comeback.

"No," he replied, smiling, "unless you wanna slap on a superhero mask and go around being, 'the voice of the voiceless' and whatnot." Aaron widened his eyes, surprised.

"Today one of _those _days, Warp?" Aaron asked, smiling. Warp just nodded, smiling triumphantly. Needless to say, in the two short years they knew each other, they knew each other extremely well. Aaron stuck his face into the bigger opening of the bars and yelled to anyone down there.

"Hello? Anyone down there? Hellooo?" Warp grabbed the collar of Aaron's shirt and pulled him up off the ground.

"Okay, maybe you should stay out of the sun for a while," Warp suggested. Aaron turned around and Warp let go of the back of his shirt.

"The sun isn't even out and you're helping me get down there," Aaron growled. Warp knew Aaron was set off very easily, but he also knew that half the times he looked very angry, he wasn't. He just wanted to talk loudly to get his point across and to sound smarter. Today, that wasn't working.

"Why?" Warp sneered. Aaron made a sort of pout face.

"Once again, do you have anything better to do?" Aaron asked. Warp suddenly looked like he was contemplating it, "I thought so." Warp just nodded. As skepticism would have it, Warp never really was the dreamer, which was all Aaron. Aaron always thought more into things, while Warp always came to one stable conclusion. Aaron would have many layers of thought process. This was what made them so compatible, and also what made them so edgy when push came to shove. Even with something as petty as this. Aaron took out his pocket knife. That always scared Warp a lot. Every time Aaron would take out his pocket knife, Warp would see Canine, despite Aaron's citrine eyes. And now with Aaron's back turned to Warp, he looked even more like Canine. Warp shuddered and looked away.

"Help me get these bolts out," Aaron's eight year old voice was completely the opposite of Canine's, so that shattered Warp's image of Canine. Warp got a rock and started banging on the bars instead, trying to break the rusted metal.

"I don't know why I'm helping you," Warp said between his teeth as sweat started to form on his brow. Aaron was trying to lever the bolts up with his knife, but all that was doing was bending the blade. Aaron stopped immediately and corrected the blade using the curb. After fixing his pocket knife to the best of his ability, Aaron started sawing at the rusty metal, finding that it broke apart easily. After a while, Warp had broken the bar and it had bent slightly inward, and that was all. He couldn't get any more to budge with his hands. Aaron had sawed another bar in half, but the bar—now separated—still didn't cave in when Aaron or Warp or even the both of them pushed it down nothing happened. They both sat on the edge of the street then, breathing hard.

"Well," Warp said, a triumphant smile on his face, "that was a complete waste of time." Aaron gave him an icy glare.

"Not necessarily," Aaron replied, looking at the sewer bars with another dangerous cocky smile on his face. Warp groaned and looked skyward.

"What I would give…" he grumbled. Aaron stood up and brushed his white shirt off. Of course he wouldn't get the stains out any time soon, since he was just lying all over asphalt and it would cost him at least four quarters for a decent wash for the shirt. Warp looked at his own light blue t-shirt he had worn for two days straight. It was covered in the disposed ash of many people's cigarettes. Warp coughed in disgust and looked up at Aaron.

"What would you do if I told you to jump on the bars of the sewer?" Aaron inquired, looking Warp up and down. Warp cocked an eyebrow.

"I—"

"That's good enough," Aaron replied, pointing to the bars. "Get on." Warp looked back and shook his head.

"Oh, no, I'm not—" Warp was cut off by a car horn that was blaring from up the street. Warp and Aaron both looked to see a blue ford pinto coming towards them. A head came out the driver's window. The ungreased hair of a Soc showed, and then the regal face of a well known one was quite clear to Aaron, but not to Warp. Aaron's eyes flashed while Warp's stomach flipped over.

"GRRREEEAAAASSSSAAAAA!!!!!!!!" The Soc yelled. Warp and Aaron were frozen in place. Warp's dark brown eyes were scared. Aaron's citrine eyes were incredibly ferocious looking. When Warp looked over at Aaron he hardly recognized him. His teeth were grinding and his eyes looked feral. Warp was worried for a second that Aaron would run right in front of the car until he saw that the car had stopped in front of him. Three Socs came out, all looking slap-happy but not completely drunk. They were smiling. Warp stood there, prepared to shout the words that normally got Socs of his back: "_Canine is my brother! If you beat me up he's gonna kill you!_" But the last time he said that, Socs had beat him up and Canine had not killed them. Warp just kept his mouth shut and hoped to God Aaron would say something…constructive and frightening.

"Hey—hey I know that kid," the driver yelled, walking towards him, "the small black-haired one. I own his sister."

_Sister_? Warp wondered. Aaron growled.

"Why don't you got fuck yourself, bitch," Aaron suggested almost under his breath, but they all still heard it. Warp knew he was missing a vital piece of information, but he didn't want to ask Aaron about it now. The lead Socs face turned serious. The lemming Socs behind him went, "Oohhh."

"Hey," the Soc replied in a warning tone, "you don't talk to me like that, ya bastard." The Soc advanced on him. Aaron was still stupidly standing his ground, thinking he could take on this guy, who was probably sixteen and ten times his size. Warp needed to think fast.

"I can talk anyway I want 'cause you ain't the boss of me," Aaron retorted, spitting at the Soc. The Soc lunged for him but Aaron quickly dodged him. He made his small size work for him.

"Attacking an eight year old," Aaron sneered, "Very big and mighty of you." Aaron unwisely kept on teasing the Soc. Warp—knowing the only way out was definitely the sewer since if they ran anywhere they could just run after them or get in the car and chase them—ran over to the sewer and started punching at the weak bonds. Luckily, no one noticed him because Aaron was dodging punches and running underneath the Socs legs at some points. Warp, whose hand was now bloody and possibly broken, had broken a big enough hole in the rusty bars to jump through and into the sewer.

"Aaron!" Warp yelled, "In here! Now!" Aaron looked over to where Warp was for a second, his face looked scared and desperate, and then he ran toward the sewer, leaving the Soc looking where he went.

"Jump in there," Warp said, "It's the only way out. He's gonna kill us if we don't." Aaron nodded and sat down on the bars and jumped down. Warp looked at the Socs, who were staring at them dumfounded, and Warp jumped in as well.


	4. Similie To Our Lives

Warp felt himself fall for a legit three seconds. Three legit seconds being counting like, _one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi…_and then he landed on something soft. He opened his eyes to a dimly lit space. He had landed on a couch, and Aaron—and to this day Warp believed it was karma that resulted in this—had landed on the cold hard floor. Aaron groaned and looked up at Warp, who was sitting comfortably on the couch.

"Lucky bitch," he moaned as he sat up. Warp jumped off the couch and kneeled beside Aaron, his arm resting upon his knee as he kneeled.

"Karma got ya good," Warp laughed. Aaron just shook his head. "Anything broken?" Warp asked seriously. Aaron shook his head, answering no this time, and stood up. Even though they were looking around themselves to see where they were, the more they looked around the more confused they got. At the bottom of a sewer, one would expect that there would be nothing but a bunch of trash. But this was the opposite. It smelled of wet furniture down at the bottom, but other than that it just looked like a dimly lit small room in a house. A couch was directly above the hole that Warp had created, and a lamp was to the left of that couch. A small table was to the right and a T.V. was set up against the wall of the small room-sewer. They both looked at each other silently.

"I'm going to have to be the first to say it, I guess," Warp sighed, still looking around. Aaron cocked his eyebrow, although he doubted Warp could see it.

"Say what?" Aaron whispered. For some strange reason, Aaron felt like whispering.

"We just fell straight into the Twilight Zone," Warp observed. Then, he totally lost it.

"Okay, dude, okay, GAME OVER," he yelled, swinging his arms. Aaron looked at him. Warp looked back. "Once you fall into a sewer and find a _room _at the bottom of said sewer, complete with TV and a couch, I think it's time to call it quits. When you start finding rooms where rooms should NEVER be, I think you should just call it." Warp sat down on the couch, brooding.

"Yup," Aaron sighed, "It's a crazy world." Aaron then brightened up more, "Hah!" he laughed, "I _told _you something was going on down here! I _told you_!" Aaron was laughing and pointing, and Warp couldn't help smiling.

"Yes," Warp said, calmer, "have fun being right." Aaron rolled his eyes, still not deterred by Warp's mood swings.

"You're being really bipolar today," Aaron observed, looking underneath the couch. Warp cocked an eyebrow, seeing Aaron looking underneath the couch.

"Bipolar?" Warp asked, confused. He had never heard the word before and it felt weird on his tongue. Aaron, who was now apparently done looking at whatever was under the couch, started to get up again. A thump signified that Aaron had bumped his head on the couch arm. Warp heard a muffled 'ow' and saw Aaron stand up. Aaron rubbed his head.

"It means you're having mood swings like a pregnant woman," Aaron explained, "That's how IT explains the word." IT was Aaron's word for his father sometimes. He used it off and on, but most of the time he did use IT. One time, Warp had seen Aaron's father drive into his driveway and he had said, 'Dude, your dad's home.' And Aaron had looked at him and said, 'No, that's IT.' Warp cocked an eyebrow at Aaron.

"I think a dictionary definition would be better," he suggested. Aaron just shrugged, looking around. He still looked really transfixed with this place, and Warp didn't know why. It was only a matter of time until he realized—

"Dude," Aaron's eyes got huge. "I don't think we're going to be able to get out of here."

"No shit, Sherlock," Warp replied, still brooding. Aaron narrowed his eyes.

"I try to brighten your life, and you repay me with this," Aaron said, throwing up his arms. Warp just laughed. Their surroundings didn't include much to escape. Aaron began looking around for anything they could use for escape. Warp sighed and got of the couch, seeing that Aaron was finally coming to his senses and doing what he needed to do.

"All I found was a couple cans of soda," Aaron sniffed the inside, "Filled with weed," he concluded. Warp looked at him.

"Weed?"

"Yeah, you know, marijuana, pot, that stuff," Aaron explained, shaking some of it out onto his hand. Warp slapped it out of Aaron's hand.

"Stop playing with that stuff," Warp said.

"Relax," Aaron replied, "I'm just curious as to what weed looks like." Warp looked at Aaron questioningly.

"But you just identified it as weed," Warp contradicted, "Why wouldn't you know what it looks like?"

"Because I _smell it on my father _all the time," Aaron said gravely, looking down, "I just wanted to see the shit that was turning my father in a douche bag. And it doesn't impress me." Aaron threw the soda can on the ground. Some twisted gnarled weed fell out. Warp looked at it for a while. He shifted in his spot and thought of what a mess this world was. An eight and seven year old just fell into a sewer and found Mountain Dew cans stuffed with weed. Aaron kicked the can.

"I bet if this stuff wasn't around he'd be an amazing father and we could get out of his shit hole," Aaron growled in a low voice.

"What kind of drug is white and powdery?" Warp burst out, not being able to contain it anymore. Aaron was street-smart, and he knew a lot about the things Warp didn't. Aaron looked at him.

"It's probably cocaine," Aaron replied, his eyes wide, "Why?"

"I found some in Canine's room," Warp admitted shakily. Aaron's eyes widened.

"That shit's powerful," Aaron said gravely, "My cousin died because of it." To Warp's horror, he found himself hoping that Canine would overdose and kill himself. Warp shook the thought away. Warp was disgusted with himself for even hoping that Canine would die in such a horrible way. Warp sighed and sat down on the couch, along with Aaron who was staring moodily at the cans of Mountain Dew.

"It could be worse," Warp tried to calm Aaron softly. This was one of those times when Aaron was legit mad, that he really would mean everything that he said. You know how when people get mad, they don't mean what they say? Aaron is the opposite. When he gets angry he chooses his words carefully and makes sure everyone knows he means it.

"You're right," Aaron agreed, dangerously calm, "But I don't see how that's supposed to make me feel better. Just because it _could _be worse doesn't mean that what's happening now isn't horrible." Warp was silenced by this logic. Aaron just sighed loudly and lied back on the couch. He was staring up at the sewer hole. "I see the light," he murmured softly. Warp looked at him and then he looked up at the light filtering through the sewer. "This is a simile to our lives," Aaron went on softly. His fingers were intertwining and twisting with each other as he talked, "We're down in a hole—filled with nothing but things that can hurt us—nothing to help us in any way—but we _know _what we need. We _know _where we need to be. And we can even see the light above us, the good life, it mocks us. It's so high up, and we're all so down low. With soda cans full of weed and sharp glasses in corners, titanium screws rusted over, there's no way out."


	5. Room at the Bottom of the Earth

September 19, 2000: Warp was now seven years old, and he has been becoming more courageous around his brother. His motive? Food, water, and his father. When Warp had been born, he had his mother for a total of five minutes. Then _they _(the angels in heaven that had coveted the love that Katherine had had for her baby boy) had whisked her away for a reason Warp, Max, or even Canine couldn't fathom, and Warp completely belonged to his father. Warp had always called himself a 'daddy's boy' since that was what he was. Whenever he had seen little boys with their mothers, he would wish that his mother had survived. For a total of five seconds he wished this with an intense ferocity...before he remembered that his father had the love of a father and a mother and maybe even the love of a brother that Canine completely failed at. And Warp had always smiled and walked on, with such a confidence that made him look regal to passerbyes. [Coined word; meaning the plural of a passerby].

Warp had realized by age six that he had to get out of the house once in a while. No matter how dangerous it was outside, it was always more dangerous inside. What, with Canine patrolling through the house…the incident of the broken hand when he was five would certainly happen again. It would happen in bigger ways. Maybe Canine would break his nose next, and then his ribs, and then maybe something bigger. Maybe even stab him with that pocket knife he had somehow acquired. Warp shivered. To know that he could be killed at any moment, even in his own home, was unnerving. Unnerving was of course an understatement, but Warp didn't exactly have the most extensive vocabulary. He was only eight, and he didn't go to school.

Warp lived on the East Side of town. Translation: The Shithole. Population: Decreasing by the second. And then there was the West side. Translation: The Works. Population: Rising and partying. Warp had some ferocious feelings towards the West Side. They came barging into the Greaser's territory and abused them. And they do it for fun. Warp always had to watch his back lest he get jumped. Every day now, Warp walked out the door at 6:00 a.m., stopped at Aaron's house, ate there, walked around with Aaron, came home, ate dinner with Max, and he was back outside again and he normally met up with Aaron at the park.

Right now, Warp was walking with Aaron. Aaron was a small eight year old. He wasn't short, in fact he was almost as tall as Warp, but Aaron was small in his features. Small bones. Even Warp looked big next to him. Aaron wasn't emaciated-looking or anything, he just looked really small. He was good looking, even for an eight year old. With the same death black hair as Canine, Warp was a little wary at first, but Aaron had something that made Warp look at Aaron and say, "that's not Canine," even with that hair. It was Aaron's citrine eyes. He had honey yellow eyes that sparked when he had a sudden changed of emotion, and they were stunning as well. They were nothing like the icy green that Canine's eyes had. They had met when someone was giving Warp shit about how he didn't have grease in his hair. (For the record, Aaron didn't have grease in his hair either, and he never planned on putting it in his hair.)

The day Warp and Aaron met was cloudy: _They were all hanging out before school hours (of course this was when Warp still went to school) on the sidewalk in front of the school. Another Greaser approached Warp—who was standing alone, which made him an easy target—and pushed him on the chest. Warp stumbled back a few inches but didn't fall. The other Greaser was Michael Jones, a well known one at that. He was eight years old while Warp was still six at this time; so Michael was also bigger and stronger._

_ "What the hell?" Warp asked in a loud tone, putting his arms out._

_ "You call your scrawny self a Greaser?" Michael Jones asked rhetorically. He was breathing hard and he was in Warp's face. Warp wondered how someone could get so mad about something that wasn't his business. "You don't have no grease in ya hair," he observed, taking a bit of Warp's longish hair in his fingers. Warp took a step away, not knowing what to say. He normally never knew what to say. Sometimes he would get a comeback that was really good but after that he had nothing. Today was not one of those days. Michael advanced on him. From the corner of Warp's eye, he saw a crowd forming. They were forming a ring around Michael and Warp._

Oh, shit, _Warp thought_, he's gonna beat me up._ The whole crowd was murmuring something. Some of them were looking on hungrily, as if they were wolves. Some were looking on with an indifference that angered Warp. Then, with horror, Warp heard what they were saying. In low, chanting voices, everyone was murmuring _fight, fight, fight. _Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Warp could see someone advancing up to Michael from behind. The person gave a huge jump and reached for Michael's greased up hair. The attacker's tiny hands grasped the hair and he held on despite all the grease, finding that he could hold on. Michael yelled and reached for his back, wondering what just happened. _

_ "What the fuck!!" He was screaming, "What the fuck is on my back!" Everyone was screaming and yelling and laughing. Warp was too shocked to do anything but stare. Everyone was yelling at him as well. They were giving him suggestions, but one that really stood out to him was one girl's suggestion: "Kick 'im in the balls, kid!" she was screaming over and over. Warp looked back at Michael, who had now shaken the kid off of his back. Before Michael could make another move Warp kneed him in the balls and Michael let out a cry of pain and fell to the ground. As soon as Michael fell, Warp could see who had been Michael's attacker. At first glance, Warp thought, _Holy crap it's Canine_. But then he saw the citrine eyes flash and he relaxed. It was just some other kid who looked about the same age as Warp only smaller. But Warp could also see something else about the kid. He was wearing a mask over his face, so just around his eyes showed and everything below his nose. Everyone was just staring until the boy broke and ran for it. Warp, who barely could think straight anymore, ran after him, leaving the other kids staring. _

_ Warp eventually chased the boy into an alley Warp knew very well. It was dark and damp but no one really knew about it. Well, now the boy apparently knew about it as well, but this was important for Warp. He wanted to know who would even give a hang about him. The boy saw the wall at the end of the alley and skidded to a halt. He turned around. The mask on his face was turned town at the sides, unlike most others, and it was black as his hair. The boy suddenly gave a start as he saw Warp, red faced and breathless, he stared back at him. _

_ "I am the voice of he voiceless," the boy began haughtily; "I am the keeper of this wretched city. I am the protector where there is no other brave enough. I am the wings of the wingless. I am the—" Warp by now was chuckling._

_ "Dude, what the hell are you saying?" Warp said, laughing. The boy by now was getting angrier. _

_ "Hey, dude, I just saved your life!" The boy exclaimed, while Warp was just continuing laughing, "I'd think you'd be a little more consid—," by then the boy couldn't contain his laughter anymore either. The boy hit his back against the wall and slid down slowly, laughing as well. Warp stopped chuckling for a moment._

_ "Dude, why are you laughing?" The boy looked up at Warp with a huge smile on his face._

_ "Because I just realized how stupid this is," the boy was laughing really hard now. He put his hand up to his mask and snapped it off, "I mean, you cannot even make this stuff up." Warp laughed harder as well. As soon as they were both done laughing at the boy's stupidity, they began talking._

_ "What's your name?" The boy asked, making an acknowledgment to Warp with his chin. _

_ "Warp," he replied. He expected the normal, "Okay, stop shitting me kid, I know that's not your real name," or, "Yeah, and my name's Mushroom." But Aaron just nodded._

_ "Good name," he replied, looking down. "I'm Aaron." _

_ "That's a girl's name," Warp replied, smiling a little. Aaron's eyes flashed._

_ "It's spelled with two a's and an o dumbass," he replied icily. Warp put his hands up. _

_ "Okay, okay," he said, "that's legit." Aaron nodded and smiled. Aaron put his hand out. His upper arm set vertical and bent at the elbow. Warp took it and pulled at the same time Aaron did, engaging in a handshake that was universal to all Greasers. But without knowing it, they both started to go more into it, they started to pull back and they moved their hands so that when they let go they made a snapping noise. They both looked at each other and finished it with a pound and then splaying their fingers at the end. _

_ "Dude, you know that handshake?" They both said at the same time. Aaron's mouth was hanging open. Warp's eyes were wide._

_ "How do you know that handshake?" Aaron asked, completely intrigued. _

_ "I learned it from Max," he explained. He didn't want to say, 'Max, my father,' because that just didn't sound alright. _

_ "How do you know it?" Warp asked. Aaron just shrugged._

_ "I've been walking around these streets my whole life. I just know it," Aaron replied. "I mean, I don't go to school." Warp did a double take. This kid didn't go to school? Lucky son of a bitch._

_ "You don't go to school?" Warp asked rhetorically, "Lucky." Aaron just shrugged._

_ "I taught myself how to read enough so I don't feel stupid with the rest of you all," he said, now looking down, "You don't know how good you have it, just to go to school, to be able to know." Aaron was now getting too much into his deeper thoughts and he stopped himself. But the little that he had said made Warp think. But he still always came to the same conclusion: I can always school myself._

_ "You know, I can always school myself. If I could hang out with you this one day just to see what you're life is like, then I would do it." Aaron looked at Warp and a slow smiled started to light up his face. _

_ "Let's go for it, bro," he said, and they both stood up, ready to explore the world, one with new eyes, and one with a new brother. _

Looking back on that day, Warp could see how far they've come. Now they had a daily schedule. They both knew everything about each other, from how Warp's mother died, to how Aaron's father had killed his brother. And needless to say, Aaron was a little bit happier that he didn't have a brother after hearing about Warp's brother and how he took every chance he got to hurt Warp. Once, when Warp had wanted to get a CD from his room to show Aaron, Canine had caught him and broken Warp's foot. Aaron had been waiting outside when he saw Warp walking out hopping on one foot. Warp hopped down the stairs. He wasn't crying, he barely looked like he was in pain, but Aaron knew Warp well even then, and he knew Warp was trying very hard not to let out as scream of pain.

"So," Warp said, a little breathless, "Here's Slipknot's album I just got yesterday." Aaron had laughed, told Warp to sit down and that he was a fucking retard. Aaron was able to feel the bones in Warp's foot, correct them, and wrap it up in his light jacket and tie it tightly.

It was 4:00 p.m. and Aaron was telling Warp a story about how his father was a complete douche bag. One of his many stories of this topic.

"So I'm going out the door and all the sudden he actually decides to speak to me. Of course in order to do that, he has to take the God damn cigarette out of his mouth. He said, 'Where you goin' boy? School?' And I'm just thinking, 'how stupid do you have to be to even make that comment?' Can you fucking believe that guy?" Warp nodded.

"Your dad sucks, dude. I'm glad my dad's actually pretty amazing." Warp replied. He was used to listening to Aaron ramble on about his dad and how suckish he was. Normally, he only had one story a week, so it didn't annoy Warp that much. Today was a Friday, so it had taken Aaron all week to take one of the instances his father was a retard and tell Warp about it.

Warp kicked a rock and it fell into the sewer. Aaron listened for the sound the rock would make when it fell. It didn't make a sound. Perplexed, Aaron stopped by the sewer that Warp had kicked the rock into and knelt down beside it. Warp kept on walking.

"What the hell are you doing, Aaron?" Warp asked in a condescending tone, still walking. Aaron looked up at Warp's still-walking figure. Aaron blew hair out of his face and put his ear down to the sewer, not answering Warp. He still hadn't heard the rock crash to the bottom. Warp finally stopped walking and turned around.

"Dude, get up off the ground. I really don't understand—" Aaron looked at Warp and his eyes flashed in anger as he put a finger to his lips. Then he went back to listening for the rock. Warp was at first stunned, but now he just rolled his eyes and sat on the curb next to Aaron, trying to figure out what the hell he was up to. After a while, Warp tiredly put his chin on his hand, waiting. Aaron shifted and looked up at Warp. Warp looked back at him, his eyes saying, 'Well?'

"Do you hear it?" Aaron whispered. Warp listened really hard, his face looking skeptical.

"I don't hear shit," he replied, looking at Aaron angrily. Despite the angry glare and tone Warp had taken with him, Aaron smiled and nodded.

"Precisely," he said, smiling. Warp just looked at him as if he were insane. Aaron sat up. "You kicked a rock into that sewer, and no sound came."

"The sewer is probably filled with water and that's why you didn't hear anything," Warp explained. Aaron shook his head.

"That can't be true because then we would have heard something." Rolling his eyes, Warp stood up.

"Why is this so important t you?" Warp asked, crossing his arms. Aaron got a dangerous cocky smile on his face, signaling that Warp was about to get pwned once again. Warp braced himself.

"Do you have anything else better to do today?" Aaron asked. Warp stood in silence for a while. Then—he guessed today was one of _those _days—he got a really good comeback.

"No," he replied, smiling, "unless you wanna slap on a superhero mask and go around being, 'the voice of the voiceless' and whatnot." Aaron widened his eyes, surprised.

"Today one of _those _days, Warp?" Aaron asked, smiling. Warp just nodded, smiling triumphantly. Needless to say, in the two short years they knew each other, they knew each other extremely well. Aaron stuck his face into the bigger opening of the bars and yelled to anyone down there.

"Hello? Anyone down there? Hellooo?" Warp grabbed the collar of Aaron's shirt and pulled him up off the ground.

"Okay, maybe you should stay out of the sun for a while," Warp suggested. Aaron turned around and Warp let go of the back of his shirt.

"The sun isn't even out and you're helping me get down there," Aaron growled. Warp knew Aaron was set off very easily, but he also knew that half the times he looked very angry, he wasn't. He just wanted to talk loudly to get his point across and to sound smarter. Today, that wasn't working.

"Why?" Warp sneered. Aaron made a sort of pout face.

"Once again, do you have anything better to do?" Aaron asked. Warp suddenly looked like he was contemplating it, "I thought so," Aaron said haughtily. Warp just nodded. As skepticism would have it, Warp never really was the dreamer, which was all Aaron. Aaron always thought more into things, while Warp always came to one stable conclusion. Aaron would have many layers of thought process. This was what made them so compatible, and also what made them so edgy when push came to shove. Even with something as petty as this. Aaron took out his pocket knife. That always scared Warp a lot. Every time Aaron would take out his pocket knife, Warp would see Canine, despite Aaron's citrine eyes. And now with Aaron's back turned to Warp, he looked even more like Canine. Warp shuddered and looked away.

"Help me get these bolts out," Aaron's eight year old voice was completely the opposite of Canine's, so that shattered Warp's image of his abusive older brother. Warp got a rock and started banging on the bars instead, trying to break the rusted metal.

"I don't know why I'm helping you," Warp said between his teeth as sweat started to form on his brow. Aaron was trying to lever the bolts up with his knife, but all that was doing was bending the blade. Aaron stopped immediately and corrected the blade against the curb. After fixing his pocket knife to the best of his ability, Aaron started sawing at the rusty metal, finding that it broke apart easily. After a while, Warp had broken the bar and it had bent slightly inward, and that was all. He couldn't get any more to budge with his hands. Aaron had sawed another bar in half, but the bar—now separated—still didn't cave in when Aaron or Warp or even the both of them pushed it down. Nothing happened. They both sat on the edge of the street then, breathing hard.

"Well," Warp said, a triumphant smile on his face, "that was a complete waste of time." Aaron gave him an icy glare.

"Not necessarily," Aaron replied, looking at the sewer bars with another dangerous cocky smile on his face. Warp groaned and looked skyward.

"What I would give…" he grumbled. Aaron stood up and brushed his white shirt off. Of course he wouldn't get the stains out any time soon, since he was just lying all over asphalt and it would cost him at least four quarters for a decent wash for the shirt. Warp looked at his own light blue t-shirt he had worn for two days straight. It was covered in the disposed ash of many people's cigarettes. Warp coughed in disgust and looked up at Aaron.

"What would you do if I told you to jump on the bars of the sewer?" Aaron inquired, looking Warp up and down. Warp cocked an eyebrow.

"I—"

"That's good enough," Aaron replied, pointing to the bars. "Get on." Warp looked back and shook his head.

"Oh, no, I'm not—" Warp was cut off by a car horn that was blaring from up the street. Warp and Aaron both looked to see a blue ford pinto coming towards them. A head came out the driver's window. The ungreased hair of a Soc showed, and then the regal face of a well known one was quite clear to Aaron, but not to Warp. Aaron's eyes flashed while Warp's stomach flipped over.

"GRRREEEAAAASSSSAAAAA!!!!!!!!" The Soc yelled. Warp and Aaron were frozen in place. Warp's dark brown eyes were scared. Aaron's citrine eyes were incredibly ferocious looking. When Warp looked over at Aaron he hardly recognized him. His teeth were grinding and his eyes looked feral. Warp was worried for a second that Aaron would run right in front of the car until he saw that the car had stopped in front of him. Three Socs came out, all looking slap-happy but not completely drunk. They were smiling. Warp stood there, prepared to shout the words that normally got Socs off his back: "_Canine is my brother! If you beat me up he's gonna kill you!_" But the last time he said that, Socs had beat him up and Canine had not killed them. Warp just kept his mouth shut and hoped to God Aaron would say something…constructive and frightening.

"Hey—hey I know that kid," the driver yelled, walking towards him, "the small black-haired one. I own his sister."

_Sister_? Warp wondered. Aaron growled.

"Why don't you got fuck yourself, bitch," Aaron suggested almost under his breath, but they all still heard it. Warp knew he was missing a vital piece of information, but he didn't want to ask Aaron about it now. The lead Socs face turned serious. The lemming Socs behind him went, "Oohhh."

"Hey," the Soc replied in a warning tone, "you don't talk to me like that, ya bastard." The Soc advanced on him. Aaron was still stupidly standing his ground, thinking he could take on this guy, who was probably sixteen and ten times his size. Warp needed to think fast.

"I can talk anyway I want 'cause you ain't the boss of me," Aaron retorted, spitting at the Soc. The Soc lunged for him but Aaron quickly dodged him. He made his small size work for him.

"Attacking an eight year old," Aaron sneered, "Very big and mighty of you." Aaron unwisely kept on teasing the Soc. Warp—knowing the only way out was definitely the sewer since if they ran anywhere they could just run after them or get in the car and chase them—ran over to the sewer and started punching at the weak bonds. Luckily, no one noticed him because Aaron was dodging punches and running underneath the Socs legs at some points. Warp, whose hand was now bloody and possibly broken, had broken a big enough hole in the rusty bars to jump through and into the sewer.

"Aaron!" Warp yelled, "In here! Now!" Aaron looked over to where Warp was for a second, his face looked scared and desperate, and then he ran toward the sewer, leaving the Soc looking where he went.

"Jump in there," Warp said, "It's the only way out. He's gonna kill us if we don't." Aaron nodded and sat down on the bars and jumped down. Warp looked at the Socs, who were staring at them dumfounded, and Warp jumped in as well.

Warp felt himself fall for a legit three seconds. Three legit seconds being counting like, _one Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi…_and then he landed on something soft. He opened his eyes to a dimly lit space. He had landed on a couch, and Aaron—and to this day Warp believed it was karma that resulted in this—had landed on the cold hard floor. Aaron groaned and looked up at Warp, who was sitting comfortably on the couch.

"Lucky bitch," he moaned as he sat up. Warp jumped off the couch and kneeled beside Aaron, his arm resting upon his knee as he kneeled.

"Karma got ya good," Warp laughed. Aaron just shook his head. "Anything broken?" Warp asked seriously. Aaron shook his head, answering no this time, and stood up. Even though they were looking around themselves to see where they were, the more they looked around the more confused they got. At the bottom of a sewer, one would expect that there would be nothing but a bunch of trash. But this was the opposite. It smelled of wet furniture down at the bottom, but other than that it just looked like a dimly lit small room in a house. A couch was directly above the hole that Warp had created, and a lamp was to the left of that couch. A small table was to the right and a T.V. was set up against the wall of the small room-sewer. They both looked at each other silently.

"I'm going to have to be the first to say it, I guess," Warp sighed, still looking around. Aaron cocked his eyebrow, although he doubted Warp could see it.

"Say what?" Aaron whispered. For some strange reason, Aaron felt like whispering.

"We just fell straight into the Twilight Zone," Warp observed. Then, he totally lost it.

"Okay, dude, okay, GAME OVER," he yelled, swinging his arms. Aaron looked at him. Warp looked back. "Once you fall into a sewer and find a _room _at the bottom of said sewer, complete with TV and a couch, I think it's time to call it quits. When you start finding rooms where rooms should NEVER be, I think you should just call it." Warp sat down on the couch, brooding.

"Yup," Aaron sighed, "It's a crazy world." Aaron then brightened up more, "Hah!" he laughed, "I _told _you something was going on down here! I _told you_!" Aaron was laughing and pointing, and Warp couldn't help smiling.

"Yes," Warp said, calmer, "have fun being right." Aaron rolled his eyes, still not deterred by Warp's mood swings.

"You're being really bipolar today," Aaron observed, looking underneath the couch. Warp cocked an eyebrow, seeing Aaron looking underneath the couch.

"Bipolar?" Warp asked, confused. He had never heard the word before and it felt weird on his tongue. Aaron, who was now apparently done looking at whatever was under the couch, started to get up again. A thump signified that Aaron had bumped his head on the couch arm. Warp heard a muffled 'ow' and saw Aaron stand up. Aaron rubbed his head.

"It means you're having mood swings like a pregnant woman," Aaron explained, "That's how IT explains the word." IT was Aaron's word for his father sometimes. He used it off and on, but most of the time he did use IT. One time, Warp had seen Aaron's father drive into his driveway and he had said, 'Dude, your dad's home.' And Aaron had looked at him and said, 'No, that's IT.' Warp cocked an eyebrow at Aaron.

"I think a dictionary definition would be better," he suggested. Aaron just shrugged, looking around. He still looked really transfixed with this place, and Warp didn't know why. It was only a matter of time until he realized—

"Dude," Aaron's eyes got huge. "I don't think we're going to be able to get out of here."

"No shit, Sherlock," Warp replied, still brooding. Aaron narrowed his eyes.

"I try to brighten your life, and you repay me with this," Aaron said, throwing up his arms. Warp just laughed. Their surroundings didn't include much to escape. Aaron began looking around for anything they could use for escape. Warp sighed and got of the couch, seeing that Aaron was finally coming to his senses and doing what he needed to do.

"All I found was a couple cans of soda," Aaron sniffed the inside, "Filled with weed," he concluded. Warp looked at him.

"Weed?"

"Yeah, you know, marijuana, pot, that stuff," Aaron explained, shaking some of it out onto his hand. Warp slapped it out of Aaron's hand.

"Stop playing with that stuff," Warp said.

"Relax," Aaron replied, "I'm just curious as to what weed looks like." Warp looked at Aaron questioningly.

"But you just identified it as weed," Warp contradicted, "Why wouldn't you know what it looks like?"

"Because I _smell it on my father _all the time," Aaron said gravely, looking down, "I just wanted to see the shit that was turning my father into a douche bag. And it doesn't impress me." Aaron threw the soda can on the ground. Some twisted gnarled weed fell out. Warp looked at it for a while. He shifted in his spot and thought of what a mess this world was. An eight and seven year old just fell into a sewer and found Mountain Dew cans stuffed with weed. Aaron kicked the can.

"I bet if this stuff wasn't around he'd be an amazing father and we could get out of his shit hole," Aaron growled in a low voice.

"What kind of drug is white and powdery?" Warp burst out, not being able to contain it anymore. Aaron was street-smart, and he knew a lot about the things Warp didn't. Aaron looked at him.

"It's probably cocaine," Aaron replied, his eyes wide, "Why?"

"I found some in Canine's room," Warp admitted shakily. Aaron's eyes widened.

"That shit's powerful," Aaron said gravely, "My cousin died because of it." To Warp's horror, he found himself hoping that Canine would overdose and kill himself. Warp shook the thought away. He was disgusted with himself for even hoping that Canine would die in such a horrible way. Warp sighed and sat down on the couch, along with Aaron who was staring moodily at the cans of Mountain Dew.

"It could be worse," Warp tried to calm Aaron softly. This was one of those times when Aaron was legit mad, that he really would mean everything that he said. You know how when people get mad, they don't mean what they say? Aaron is the opposite. When he gets angry he chooses his words carefully and makes sure everyone knows he means it.

"You're right," Aaron agreed, dangerously calm, "But I don't see how that's supposed to make me feel better. Just because it _could _be worse doesn't mean that what's happening now isn't horrible." Warp was silenced by this logic. Aaron just sighed loudly and lied back on the couch. He was staring up at the sewer hole. "I see the light," he murmured softly. Warp looked at him and then he looked up at the light filtering through the sewer. "This is a simile to our lives," Aaron went on softly. His fingers were intertwining and twisting with each other as he talked, "We're down in a hole—filled with nothing but things that can hurt us—nothing to help us in any way—but we _know _what we need. We _know _where we need to be. And we can even see the light above us, the good life, it mocks us. It's so high up, and we're all so down low. With soda cans full of weed and sharp glasses in corners, titanium screws rusted over, there's no way out." Aaron sounded so incredibly distraught and defeated; it made Warp's stomach twist. His hands transformed into fists as he unclenched and clenched his white fingers.

"Imma find a way out," he whispered softly, just loud enough that Aaron could hear it. Surprised, Aaron turned his head, "I don't know how, but I'm gonna find a way out." Aaron smiled crookedly, the way he smiled after just being brought up again from the dimness of his hopelessness.

"I'm with ya, brotha," he replied. They shook hands the way they had when they first met and sat there. For a few seconds then, they really didn't know what to do.

)(

"I'm really about to break down and cry," Aaron's soft voice muttered. He was laying down on the couch in a fetal position, his head on top of the couch arm. Now, he was busily chewing his fingernails in a vain attempt to comfort himself. Warp was sitting on the ground.

"That won't solve anything," Warp replied. The longer they kept themselves down the sewer, the darker it got. They wouldn't be able to get out if it was dark out.

"I know," Aaron's voice was shaky, "I wish…" Aaron didn't know what he wished. Sure, he wished to get out of the sewer, but he also wished for something bigger that he couldn't yet fathom. His heart pulled for it, but he didn't know what it was. Salty tears fell silently down his face. Warp didn't notice Aaron was crying.

"What are you wishing for? Wishing doesn't work," Warp replied bitterly. Too busy trying to hold tears back, Aaron didn't reply. Soon, the back of his neck started to hurt from the strain of holding everything back and his jaw hurt from clenching it so tight. Aaron just closed his eyes and let the sobs slowly wrack his body. Warp looked over, astonished.

"Dude, are you _crying_?" Warp asked. Not condescendingly, he was just incredibly surprised.

"Yeah," Aaron replied, his voice shaky. He could taste the tears in his mouth. "It sucks."

"Yeah, crying sucks, I guess," Warp agreed tentatively. He had never seen Aaron cry before. He had seen Canine cry, Max cry, even Aaron's father cry, but Aaron never cried. It was strange, Warp thought, that he would cry now—exactly the wrong time to cry.

"No," Aaron sniffed, "Crying actually feels good. I meant my life. It sucks." Aaron explained. "It's not even just me that's hurting in my life. My father, my sister, you…I wish it was just all me feeling this."

"You never told me," Warp whispered, "That you had a sister."

"I kept her from you for a reason," Aaron replied darkly, not looking at Warp. Warp shifted in his spot. He wasn't comfortable, especially since Aaron didn't seem to be calm or thinking clearly. Aaron's dramatic sigh cut through Warp's mental thinking, "But then again, I guess it doesn't really matter. Plus, if we die here, I want you to know." Warp stiffened. Die? Die—down here? No, that wasn't his plan…that wasn't what his plan was. If he died down here that would be it—that would be it for raising money for his plane ticket out of here. He would get a one way ticket to Hell or Heaven; he really didn't know where he would go at this point. Warp looked at Aaron pleadingly.

"We can't die," Warp said softly, "We're too young." Aaron just rolled his eyes, as if to scoff Warp's ignorance.

"There's nothing really to say," Aaron shrugged, "But it's actually pretty important, that one small piece of information." Aaron paused, looking at his hands. He had a bad habit of chewing his fingernails, and tonight, he had chewed them to the point they were bleeding. He wiped the blood on his shirt and tried to figure out how to start telling Warp about this.

"When I was about five or six, my sister still lived with us. Her name is Carly, and I haven't seen her in a pretty long time. When she lived with me, we would both spend all of our time together. She's two years older than me so she was seven or eight when she lived with us. She would come in my room and we'd talk about stuff—you know about the day and plans for tomorrow—and we also talked about our father. She hated our father just as much as I did—maybe more—and they were _always _fighting. One night—July 17th, 1998—they had an exceptionally huge fight. She finally broke and said some things I'll never repeat, and stormed out of the house. She had done that many times before this altercation, so I wasn't worried. I started to get worried when she didn't come back the third day. I finally went in search of her. IT was completely indifferent—his normal reaction to things like this—and so I took a picture of her off my dresser and asked everyone I met on the street if they had seen her and showed them her picture. I got a lot of 'no's' and 'get outta my way's'. Apparently no one had seen her. It was about eight o' clock p.m. and I was trudging down the street. I finally saw her with some other people I didn't know. I yelled to her and she came over to me. I told her that she shouldn't have been away for so long and pulled her hand so I could lead her home. She told me that she wasn't ever going home again. She told me she would visit. Haven't seen her in a year. Last time I heard from her, she was being used by a group of older guys. I don't really appreciate that she abandoned me, but I still lover he, ya know? And—it kills me that I can't help her. I know I can't do anything…" Aaron finished. Now he was wiping tears away more vigorously, and Warp handed him a piece of his shirt he had ripped of during the story. Aaron dabbed at his eyes, and then continued biting the stubs of his fingernails. He tasted blood in his mouth and stopped immediately. He could take a lot of things, but blood in his mouth was not one of them.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" Warp asked, "I mean, not because I want to _know _but because…we don't really have any secrets." Aaron sniffed and nodded.

"Yeah, _now _we don't have any secrets. We both know every fucking thing about each other." Warp chuckled. He was glad he had Aaron to deal with this shit with him, and vice-versa.

"I just have one question for God," Warp murmured softly. Aaron responded with a scornful grunt. God was a touchy subject for Aaron. He did not believe in any divine spirit up in Heavenly clouds, he didn't believe anything out of The Bible—in fact, he called it, 'a comic strip'—and he didn't want anything to do with any religion. Because of the fact that he didn't like authority figures, or just because he can't believe in a spirit who makes things better when you close your eyes and put your hands together, Warp wasn't sure, but Warp accepted it. On the other hand, Warp believed in God one hundred percent. He normally went to Church on Sundays. Warp looked up to the sickly yellow street light coming through the bars, "Why didn't He make us real brothers?" Aaron just shrugged.

"I don't know, I'll confront that mystery soon enough."

"Do you consider yourself a philosopher?" Warp asked, a weak smile on his face.

"I've had a lot of time to think," Aaron thought out loud, "So no, I'd say I'm more of a kid with nothing better to do other _than _think." Warp laughed weakly, now starting to worry. His father would be getting home by this time, and when Max saw that Warp was not home, he'd be worried. And he should be, Warp was currently in a predicament he could not get out of easily. Warp looked over to Aaron and saw that Aaron was starting to veer off from reality. Of course, he was just 'daydreaming' but in a sense, he really was detaching himself from the real situation. It was Aaron's mechanism for calming himself. Warp's mechanism was realizing the stone-cold truth and dealing with it. But tonight, he found he wasn't dealing with it well. Warp looked over at Aaron and started shaking his shoulders. Aaron shook his head and looked at Warp.

"What?" He asked.

"Can you try and think logically for five seconds? We need to get out of here!" Warp exclaimed, jumping off the couch and looking around to see if there was an escape object they had missed. Aaron smiled sympathetically.

"I'm not sure there's going to be any way out," Aaron tried to reason with him. With a scared cry, Warp jumped back. Aaron jumped, "What?"

"Rats," Warp's voice shivered in fear, "Shit, they're all over the place," he said as he backed up, Aaron got up slowly and approached the back of Warp. His face paled as he saw the writhing ground over Warp's shoulder. A rat scurried up to Warp's legs. Aaron saw Warp was frozen in place; he obviously didn't know what to do. With a grim look on his face, Aaron quickly stepped on the rat. A sickening crunch resonated through the sewer-room. Warp turned to Aaron with a sickened look on his face.

"Thanks," Warp breathed, "I hate rodents." Aaron nodded as he took Warp's shoulders and backed up slowly. The rats seemed to just stay in that one secluded place—near the Mountain Dew cans filled with pot.

"Rats like weed," Warp said shakily. They both sat on top of the couch arms, Aaron on the right and Warp on the left. They sat there puzzled in a daze, seeing the rats swarm in and out of the Mountain Dew cans. Aaron laughed weakly as one of the rats had a can stuck on its head. Then, Aaron saw a shadow crossing the sickly yellow light coming through the bars. A rock then fell through the bars.

"Who's up there?" Aaron yelled, "Yo!" As the seconds went by without a response, Aaron grew more and more tense. Warp had stiffened the minute he had seen a rock come through the bars. They were both looking up at the bars, hoping wildly for a response.

"Who's down there?" A feminine voice responded. Aaron's and Warp's eyebrows both shot up in amazement. Girls normally didn't walk around alone. They waited for someone else to say something to the girl—they couldn't believe that she would just be walking around alone. Finally, Aaron decided to respond.

"Two incredibly stupid boys," Aaron replied a little sarcastically, "Can you help us get out?"

"No," she replied a little bluntly. That hit Aaron like a slap in the face. "Just let me call my sister, she'll be able to help you guys," she offered, and Aaron relaxed.

"Alright," Aaron yelled back up to her. After a few minutes of silence, Aaron said, "Thanks."

"Yeah, no problem," she replied in an offhand tone, as if this was something she saw all the time. They both heard muffled talking as the girl called her sister. Within a few moments, Aaron was already pacing. He kept on making small talk with the girl.

"Why are you out all alone?" He asked.

"Picking up something for mom."

"Couldn't your sister have come with you in the first place?"

"She had plans."

"So she can take time off her 'plans' to come and help a couple of strangers?"

"Looks like it."

"How old are you?"

"Eight. You?"

"Same."

"What a coincidence," her voice carried a scornful lilt to it. Aaron ignored it.

"Name?"

"Sam."

"Aaron."

"Nice to meet you—wait, you said there were two of you."

"Yeah, my bro, Warp."

"Hey, Warp," she called down to Warp. Warp tried to say 'hi' but his voice came out too soft for even Aaron to hear. He tried again.

"Hey, Sam." He called up to her.

"You have a cool name."

"Runs in the family," Warp replied, smiling a little. Muffled voices then indicated Sam was talking to someone else.

"Who else is up there?" Aaron yelled up to the bars, almost defensively. Warp cocked his eyebrow.

"It's just her sister, calm down," Warp told him. Aaron just sighed heavily. A dark face suddenly appeared and Aaron and Warp jumped in surprise. They were doing that a lot tonight. Then, the figure's face lifted and they could see that only the shadow of the yellow street light made her face look dark. The figure looked back down.

"How'd you two get down there? The hole in the bars isn't even that big." A thick New York accented the voice.

"I don't know, I guess it was an adrenaline rush," Aaron explained. His voice carried an exasperated tone to it that Sam's sister didn't appreciate.

"Why should I help them anyways?" Sam's sister said as she got up off her knees, "And more importantly, why do _you _wanna help 'em?" There was a moment of silence while they all seemed to await the answer. No one knew it, but Sam's face was getting red in embarrassment as the awkward silence filled the air thereafter. Finally, she replied.

"Why leave when you can help?" The answer was just so simple and completely innocent that Sam's sister succumbed to it.

"Aight, I'll try my best, kay Sam?" Sam smiled and nodded.

"Victoria, how are you going to go about this, exactly?" Sam asked her sister. Victoria looked back at Sam with an uncertainty on her face that Sam found a little amusing.

"Don't smirk at me," Victoria replied with a smile on her face. Then, she said, "Do you see a ladder anywhere?"

"I can't see _anything anywhere _because these street lights give as much light as a Yankee candle."

"Nice synonym."

"Thank you. I'm gonna try to major in something that's related to Language Arts."

"Can we discuss your future some other time?" Warp called up to the light impatiently. They didn't hear anything for a while, and then a stone came hurling down the sewer. It didn't hit them, but they got the message. They waited for a while until they heard Victoria call down again.

"We found a ladder!" Victoria screamed happily. Aaron and Warp smiled. They saw they ladder come down slowly. Aaron grasped it with his hands and brought it down. They both looked at each other. Who was going first?

"I'll go," they both said in unison. They both looked at each other painfully. If one went first and broke the ladder—which looked loose and unsteady—they would be stuck down there for good.

"Which one of you is the heaviest?" Sam's soft voice floated down. How she knew they were having this dilemma, they weren't sure. But they both knew that Warp was heavier by about five pounds.

"Warp. But he's not much heavier than me. At the most it's only a five pound difference—"

"_I don't care_," Victoria's voice was short and impatient, "Just send the least heavy one up." Aaron just nodded and started climbing up the ladder. He made it up without a problem, and now Warp was left alone. He swallowed and started climbing. He was doing fine until he cracked the fifth run. He yelped and slid down two inches, scraping his hands on the splintery wood.

"You okay, kid?" Victoria asked. What Warp wanted to say back was, _Where the hell was Aaron? _But he just made a small sound that sounded like a 'yes' and kept on going. He almost ran up the runs and let Victoria lift him out. He was dropped on the pavement that was wet with falling rain.

_Out of all the times it could rain, why now? _Warp looked around him and he saw Aaron and Sam looking at each other intently. He raised an eyebrow. A few uncomfortable moments passed between Warp and Victoria. Unable to take the tense air around them, Warp finally spoke.

"Aaron, we got to be getting home. Max will kill me…"

"It's already four a.m." Victoria snapped, "Nothin' you can do now." The New York accent and the hopeless demeanor made her sound creepy. Warp shuddered. Aaron tore his eyes away from Sam and looked at the both of them.

"No, we're both going home," Aaron replied sturdily. "Come on." Warp got up and stood next to Aaron.

"Thank you so much for helping us," Aaron's eyes lingered longer on Sam than on Victoria. Sam's smile was shy. Sam—Warp noticed—did not look like her sister. He couldn't tell much, since it was a rainy dark night, but he could see that she had soft fly-away hair and a cute face. She wasn't that appealing to Warp but he guessed that she was to Aaron.

"When will we get to see each other again?" Sam asked in a spur-of –the-moment sort of way. Warp got the feeling she didn't talk much, and that she was extremely shy. Aaron smiled.

"I live on the corner of Year Wood Avenue. Door number 23. You know where that is, right?" Sam smiled and nodded.

"Tomorrow, then?" She asked.

"Sure," Aaron replied, giving her another smile. Sam smiled back and then she looked up as Victoria made a sighing sound.

"Come on, we're way overdue getting the toothpaste that we needed to pick up, and mom's going to be pissed." Sam looked disappointed but she waved and smiled goodbye and walked after Victoria. Aaron and Warp turned the separate way.


End file.
